San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Bears’ strong start for naught in loss to Frogs
FORT WORTH, Texas — Quentin Johnston caught two of Max Duggan’s three TD passes, with the go-ahead score coming on a nifty catch-andrun as TCU beat Cal 34-32 on Saturday to remain undefeated against Pac-12 teams under coach Gary Patterson.
Johnston put the Horned Frogs (2-0) ahead to stay with the 45-yard TD catch with 9:53 left, when he twisted around one defender who fell down near the 30 and then shed the attempted tackle by another inside the 10. Johnston finished with five catches for 95 yards.
“I think I speak for the whole team when I say this … we were very excited when he caught it,” said running back Zach Evans.
“I try to make that my main threat, getting yards after catch, just a lot of people think I’m 6-4, just a tall lanky receiver, getting the ball and go straight down,” Johnston said. “But I try to prove that I can do more than that.”
Evans ran for 183 yards on 22 carries, with a 51-yard TD just before halftime for the Horned Frogs. Duggan completed 17 of 31 passes for 234 yards and added 71 yards rushing on 19 carries with a 9-yard keeper for a TD with 5:47 left for a 34-26 lead.
Chase Garbers threw for 309 yards and two touchdowns for Cal (0-2). He had 235 yards passing in the first half, with
199 of that coming on only four plays (49, 54, 28 and 68 yards).
After starting 0-3 in their pandemic-shorted 1-3 season last year, the Bears have 0-2 starts in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1994 and 1995.
“Ultimately as a defense, we didn’t play well enough to win,” Cal coach Justin Wilcox said. “We’re a few plays away from playing pretty good football.”
Cal led 19-7 after Garbers threw a 7-yard TD pass to Nikko Remigio. That was a play after a 68-yard catch by Trevon
Clark, whose only other catch was a 54-yard TD grab.
“Unfortunately we didn’t get the win, but feel like we made a lot of strides as a team,” Garbers said.
Evans scored for the Frogs with 11 seconds before halftime, and the TCU opened the second half with a 15-play, 75-yard drive that ended with Johnston’s 18-yard catch that gave it their first lead at 21-19.
“For us, not playing a bowl game (last season), we knew this game was a big game to find a way to win,” Patterson said. “It wasn’t pretty, especially on defense. We know we’ll play better. I think it’s a big deal.”